May 06, 2005

Foreign Interference

MR. CASEY: Well, first of all, let me just say that we welcome endorsements of Mr. Bolton's nomination by many people out there, in addition to the comments that were made yesterday by Mr. Armitage, as well as by other people. I know, as many of you know, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has come in with a letter endorsing Mr. Bolton's nomination. And these are added to a large number of statements of support that we have seen not only from here in the United States but from various parts of the world for his nomination.

You know, I think mostly the most important thing for us about this is that we're very pleased to see that there are so many people, both here at home and elsewhere, who have come to the same conclusion that the President and the Secretary have, which is clearly that John Bolton is the right man for this job. And again, we look very much forward to having his confirmation hearing go forward. We're confident that the committee, as well, will come to the same conclusion in the end, that he is the right man for the job, and we look forward to seeing him up in New York.

Now one might think that following the sturm and drang from a right wing that worked itself into a furioushissyfit over the Supreme Court decision to outlaw the death penalty for minors and overturn a Texas sodomy law, both decisions having been based partially on worldopinion, that we might see some outrage over this. Because this isn't just about whether or not we can send juvenile offenders to the chair and light them up like Roman candles, it's about whether or not the sainted votes of our congresscritters might be swayed by the opinion of the former leader of a country with [gasp!] socialized medicine and an enormous welfare roll.

Though, if one thought that, then it would be clear that one was suffering from the delusion that the opinion leaders of the right wing are concerned in the slightest about consistency. Now if the Prime Minister of France had endorsed a Clinton nominee back in the late '90s, well, that would have just been beyond the pale I'm sure.